Communist leader hails health care as 'historic victory'

President Obama's new health-care law is a "historic victory" that can lead to socialized medicine and "single-payer" health-care legislation, boasted Juan Lopez, chairman of the Communist Party USA in Northern California.

"The signing into law of the new health care reform package has all the earmarks of a historic victory in more ways than one," wrote Lopez in a recent article in People's World, the official publication of the Communist Party USA.

Advertisement - story continues below

Lopez called the new law "the federal government's biggest attack on economic inequality since President Reagan 30 years ago began the offensive to redistribute wealth in favor of the large corporations and the rich."

Continued Lopez: "Big chunks of the money to pay for the law come from payroll taxes of households earning more that a quarter of a million dollars and from cutting medical subsidies for private insurers."

The communist activist stated Obama deserves "a big hand for a job well done under heavy political fire."

Advertisement - story continues below

Lopez argued Obama's health-care reform will need to go through more political battles until it eventually morphs into a right that is "fully enshrined in the Bill of Rights, as an amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing free health care for all as a basic human right."

Lopez noted that after Social Security legislation was first enacted into law it took years before the policy was "improved" upon. Similarly, he argued Obama's legislation could lead to "single-payer" healthcare.

Father of 'single-payer' movement

Chicago doctor Quentin Young, considered the father of the modern "single-payer" movement, has had a long relationship with Obama, particularly in the 1990s, when he reportedly advised Obama on health-care issues.

Young reportedly was present at a 1995 meeting at the home of former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers that was said to have launched Obama's political career.

Advertisement - story continues below

Young himself took credit in March 2009 in an interview with the Democracy Now network for "turning Barack Obama into a 'single-payer' advocate when the president was an Illinois state senator."

As an Illinois state senator representing a mostly black district on the south side of Chicago, Obama publicly supported universal health care. He also co-sponsored the Bernardin Amendment, which did not pass but would have amended the Illinois state constitution to add health care to the list of basic rights for residents.

Just after Obama's 2008 election, Young penned an article in Political Affairs, another official magazine of the Communist Party USA, calling for socialized medicine.

"The only effective cure for our health-care woes is to establish a single, publicly financed system, one that removes the inefficient, wasteful, for-profit private health insurance industry from the picture," said Young, who is also the national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program.

Advertisement - story continues below

"Our country is hailing the remarkable and historic victory of Barack Obama and the mandate for change the electorate has awarded him," he said.

Young said the adoption of a single-payer health system should be a "major component of the new president's economic rescue of Main Street."

Young noted Obama previously expressed support of a single-payer universal health-care program, although he later waffled when asked about his position.

Young has been active in Chicago socialist circles and was accused of membership in a communist group. In 1992, Chicago's branch of the Democratic Socialists of America awarded Young, a member, with their highest honor – the Debs Award.

Advertisement - story continues below

Young was accused of membership in the Bethune Club of the Communist Party, a party doctor's group, by a government commission investigating the 1968 Democratic Party Convention riots in Chicago.